The Blind Affect — Michael Poeltl

... there is a fantastic twist in the story... the three characters' stories come together in the most serendipitous way. - REEDSY REVIEW - Susie HelmeCan life be more than the sum of one's own experiences?Diversity, inclusion, and equality are at the heart of this character-driven story. While difficult and heart-breaking lessons await Jonah, Severn, and Darnell in their own lives, a shared event along a similar timeline links all three, despite their glaring differences.Caught in the gravity of the event, purpose presents itself and their shared blind affect validates the notion that no life is wasted.The Blind Affect explores the purpose behind existence - the reason we take our first breath, and the rationale behind all the drama leading up to the moment we breathe our last. It is a walk on the wild side of family life and the events, people, and places that make us who we are.As Jonah reflects on his life an asymmetrical pattern featuring a thousand shades of grey appears as if caught up in a fragmented kaleidoscope - the introduction of any color negated for fear of denoting some appeal. He'd lived a fruitless existence built around fear and addiction, the blueprint to his life; his twin brother stillborn, moments before Jonah's birth. The guilt he harboured over his brother's death kept him sedated. His mother's overprotective parenting supported this inertia. An addict, Jonah struggled through life seeing multiple therapists over his seemingly endless issues until a chance meeting attempts to rewrite his abject history. Severn was born in a Christian home with an alcoholic mother whose addiction became intolerable after Severn's father died when she was ten. The affluent lifestyle she was accustomed to remained, but her family life collapsed soon after, leaving her to fend for herself. One fateful night in 1973 Severn was abducted, and any issues she'd had with her past paled in comparison to the life she was forced to endure. Darnell had it tough his whole life. At 17 his abusive father was killed in a raid on his illegal business, while Darnell's mother had been shot dead the year before. Discovering a large sum of money upon his father's death offered Darnell the opportunity to flee his impoverished neighbourhood and change his luck, and that of others along the way.Lives are lived and lost ubiquitously, these three just so happened to be in the same city along a similar timeline. Can life be more than the sum of one's own experiences?